60,000 pregnant women still drinking and smoking

According to the Baby Charity Tommy's, thousands of mums-to-be are still drinking and smoking to cope with the stress of being pregnant.

In a poll carried out by the organisation, it was revealed that one in 20 turns to cigarettes and one in 25 to alcohol during pregnancy. That basically means that 60,000 babies born each year are affected, 32,000 by smoking and 25,200 by alcohol.

The survey earlier revealed that 90 per cent of women feel stressed during pregnancy, and alcohol and smoking appear to be the vices used to help.

Smoking whilst pregnant (or once you baby is born) is extremely dangerous as it can cause miscarriage, stillbirth and puts the baby at risk from being small or being born prematurely. Smoking also trebles the risk of cot death and can trigger Asthma and chest infections. Women are advised to stop smoking when they decide to conceive a baby, as smoking (for both men and women) can affect the chances of falling pregnant. Even smoking in the next room to your baby does little to stop the harmful toxins getting to your baby.

Drinking in pregnancy can lead to fetal brain damage and facial deformities. Recent government advice to pregnant women about drinking alcohol is that there is no safe level during pregnancy for mothers-to-be. This replaces previous advice, which advised that a couple of glasses of wine each week was not detrimental. The Department of Health has issued this new advice, not on the basis of new research becoming available, but because of what it sees as a need to ensure pregnant women did not under-estimate the potential risks to their baby.

For more information see our articles on Alcohol and pregnancy and Smoking and pregnancy.

Thanks to the Daily Mirror 04/09/07